The Iowa Ag Secretary and State Veterinarian say there are no concerns that there’s been any spread of the pseudorabies virus after it was discovered in a small herd of hogs in central Iowa.
Ag Secretary Mike Naig says the virus has been traced to five boars brought from Texas that had contact with wild boars. “A spillover event from the wild population to an outdoor population, and then a spillover event into a commercial site, a small commercial site here in Iowa,” Naig says.
The disease was eradicated in the U.S. in the commercial hog population, and the last case in Iowa was in 2004. Naig says they believe there was no spread after testing the other pigs. “The other pigs on that site ultimately tested negative. We did not have any other additional positive tests outside of the five that were originally shipped from Texas, which gives us a strong indication that given that there was no spread within the facility, there’s a strong indication that there was no spread outside of the facility either,” he says.
State veterinarian Jeff Kaisand says pseudorabies was eradicated using vaccines. “We cannot use vaccine now and there’s no need to because we are not in an endemic disease situation. This is contained, appears to be totally contained and it’s not. Once we get the testing done, we’ll have a better idea, but we’re not expecting area spread,” he says.
Secretary Naig says there are less than 100 hogs in the Iowa operation where the boars tested positive for pseudorabies, and they will be destroyed.